Yu going out with Sivina had irrefutably bothered her. She had allowed it herself, even encouraged Yu to go when he insisted on not going, thinking it would be better for Yu.

It still bothered her.

She went back to her own room. Cornelia hadn't made the bed after she woke up, so it was a mess.

“Are there no servants in this castle? Why haven't they make the bed?”

She threw herself on the bed. It was cold but it didn't bother her. She spread her arms and looked up at the ceiling. Unlike the bed she had slept on in their mansion in Virgo, this one was not covered and looked directly up at the white ceiling.

Yurine felt she was growing up. At the same time, she realized that she didn't want to grow up. When she remembered her mother, she remembered what her days used to be like. She had never assumed she would grow up.

She lived with the assumption that she would live forever as a child with a young Rie. It was as if time did not exist back then, everything was a sweet dream. As a sword fairy, she got all the love she needed from her mother. Of course, now it couldn't even come close to the love she got from Yu.

Now she could feel the passage of time with pain. She had someone she loved more than her mother; someone who loved her much more than her mother loved her. That should have made her happier, but Yurine couldn't be happy.

Maybe if their lives had not been like this, maybe if they had never suffered, she would have been much happier than she is with her mother. If she had stayed with Yu in Rolderhelm, she could have lived with him right now as if time was not passing at all.

“But if we had stayed there, if Yu had chosen to stay there, I would not have loved him as I love him today.”

It was ironic.

What made Yurine happy also made Yu suffer, and if he had not gone down this path of suffering, he would not have had what made her happy.

She turned onto her stomach and pressed her head into the pillow. “I want to be Yu's sword fairy.”

It meant that she cared for Yu more than she cared for Rie. She loved Yu more than she loved her mother.

But was this really so unusual? After all, Emily loved her father more than she loved her mother. It was normal for a daughter to be more fond of her father. Even though Yu was not a real hero, he was Yurine's hero.

The hero who set out on a path of suffering for Yurine. She loved him.

“I hate Emily.” Her voice sank into the pillow. “I hate her for being happy. I hate her for losing that happiness.”

At the sound of her voice, hot tears began to fall from her eyes and smear on the pillow.

She had given up on her mother. She was the one who wanted to save her in the first place, she was the one who had put Yu on the path of suffering, but then she had given up on Rie.

She had said to Yu, 'all the pain you've suffered so far was in vain, I dragged you down this path, I'm the reason you're going through all this pain, but let's give up now'. She was hurting him.

「How to create girls」

Ignoring Emily's question, she pressed her head a little further into the pillow. She was tired, tired of thinking and tired of fighting. All she wanted now was for Yu to come back soon and live a peaceful life forever.

“Mom...” she murmured.

It hurt to have given her up, but she couldn't deny she he cared more for Yu.

And now that she had given up on her, she still wanted her. Yu was more important than Rie, but she wanted to see Rie again. She wanted to hug her too, to feel again the love she offered.

“Is this normal for a sword fairy?” she thought. “Or is it because I am special? Shouldn't I love only one person?”

She thought it was selfish to care for Yu and at the same time care for her mother, but she couldn't give up that selfishness.

“What is that?” She lifted her head from the pillow and looked around. “Kigaro! What's going on over there?”

She smelled something dark. Her tail stiffened with this dark and cursed smell. There was no sound coming from outside. She was sure there was no sound because she could hear much better than humans with her ears, she didn't think there was any sound that could escape her ears.

“I'm talking to who?” she said. Her voice was anxious because the silence made her uneasy. What made her more uneasy than the silence was the ever-increasing smell in her nose.

The malodor turned into a sensation, penetrating her cells and filling her heart with anxiety. She stood up with strength in her hands and jumped down from the bed. She took a step towards the door but was afraid to take a second step. She was afraid, even though she couldn't sense the mana of someone around her.

“What if there are people waiting outside the door?” It was the first question of fear that nailed her in place.

“But what if Yu is back?” The second question made her take another step.

If Yu was inside the castle right now, she couldn't risk it. Even if she just got the wrong feeling and opened the door to find Kigaro standing there, it was better to take precautions, she would find out what had happened.

She walked forward and slipped on the slippers in front of the door. Then she put her hand on the door handle, lowered the metal handle and pulled the door towards him.

“Kigaro?” she called out as she poked her head out. “There's no one here.”

When she looked up the stairs to the road leading to the top, she saw no one. She looked down and there was no one there either.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Kigaro! Where are you?” she shouted. It wasn't normal that the roarons weren't here, but worse than that was the dark feeling that still enveloped her body.

“Is anyone there?” When there was no answer, her voice took on a worried tone again. She started down the stairs.

“I'll be angry! I'll tell Yu! Where are you!” She was afraid of being alone. “I don't want to be alone. Why isn't anyone here?”

Her voice echoed through the tower. Normally this wouldn't happen because there was so much stuff even on the sides of the stairs, but now she could hear her voice echoing several times.

When she landed on the first floor, her nose caught a familiar scent. It was pungent and cold, and her heart told her that her adrenaline levels increased as she smelled it.

When she saw the first mark, she was speechless. “Blood?”

The smell of blood splattered on the walls and stairs penetrated her sensitive nose. She was not afraid of the sight of blood, but combined with the darkness she felt, she felt dizzy and had to put her hand on the wall to keep her balance.

“YU!” she shouted.

Yu's blood should have been black, she could tell that this red blood was not his, but she was still worried about him. She shouted again.

“YU!”

There was no answer and Yurine felt the silence growing. A little more focus and she would have heard her own heartbeat. She tried to sense the mana around her, to find any life, but there was nothing.

“LINK! ANA! WHERE ARE YOU?!” She kept shouting and calling names, there was no answer. She had to move forward, even though she didn't want to.

When she went down one more floor, she let out a small scream, and without realizing it, she put her hand to her mouth, where she had smeared blood on the wall, and tried to silence herself.

“Kigaro...” She quickly descended the stairs, holding the hem of her dress. “Kigaro? Hey? KIGARO!”

Kigaro's body was lying on the stairs. Yurine could not feel any mana from his body and his spirit had already left his body. His elongated fur and mane were covered in dried blood, and because he was lying on his back, she could see the deep cuts on his back.

“KIGARO! GET UP! HOW DARE YOU DARE TO DIE, DOG!” She shook him. She shook him so hard that Kigaro slipped down the stairs and tumbled to the ground.

“HOW DARE YOU DARE TO DIE!” Even though she had saved him, even though she had given his life to him, the fact that he had lost it made Yurine feel that what she had done had been in vain. “RISE UP!”

She wanted to run to him, but something she stepped on on the stairs made her slip, she lost her balance and she tumbled and fell on Kigaro's body.

It was Kigaro's stomach she had stepped on and her intestines had gotten tangled in her legs as she had fallen down the stairs. Kigaro's blood was now on her clothes, on her face and in her hair, and she could smell it more acutely.

She tried to stand up, putting her hand on his furry body, but her hand slipped and her face was buried in Kigaro's bloody mane. Spitting the blood out of her mouth, she crawled away from the dead half-lion's body and stood up.

“Where's Yu?”

If Kigaro was dead, there had to be people here strong enough to kill him. If he was dead, she could assume that the other roarons were dead too, and in that case they could definitely hurt Yu. Even if she couldn't turn into a sword, as a sword fairy she couldn't let Yu be harmed. Without him, she would not find the motivation to keep living and would go on a hunger fast. Yu had to live to make Yurine live.

If she went down the stairs, she could find Yu, who was just entering the castle, or she could wait for him. Of course, if Yu was on the upper floors, she wouldn't meet him, but she didn't think he could go upstairs without seeing her.

“Uh?”

First a giggle, then a hand grabbing her ankle. Yurine didn't even realize what had happened when she hit the wall.

If she didn't have mana in her body she would have been beaten to death, but instead she heard her bones cracking and her head split open. She fell on her face and went back into the blood. The blood in her eye hurt, and as she tried to wipe it away with the back of her hand, she was kicked in the stomach and thrown into the air.

In mid-air she was kicked again and thrown like a ball onto the stairs. When she landed on the stairs, she somersaulted again and landed on the ground and appeared at the feet of the half-lion that had attacked her.

At that moment she heard a sound, heavier than usual in her ears because of the shock. It was the sound of bells. They were ringing and ringing and ringing, giving Yurine a metallic pain in her ears.

“Uhhhhhhhhhh...” It was an ugly and seemingly failed chuckle. “Truna na?”

Kigaro grabbed Yurine by the throat as she fell at his feet and lifted her into the air. Yurine struggled to breathe, trying to get out of his grasp, but the force inside Kigaro's body was not human. A supernatural force had entered his body, Yurine could feel the darkness emanating from him.

Kigaro's smiling face was missing some of his teeth. His chest was split open and some of the bones in his rib cage were sticking out. Yurine could see the shattered organs, a large gash in his abdomen.

Kigaro's eyes were hollow, but a faint red glow could be discerned in the darkness where his eyes should have been. His tongue was out and he couldn't even call what was on his face a smile.

Yurine tried to kick him in the stomach, but Kigaro or what was inside him was not affected at all. On top of that, kicking him in the stomach was wasting Yurine's energy.

She kicked again and her foot went through the slit in his stomach. She tried to pull her foot back but she couldn't, it was stuck there.

“He~y, truna na~?” said the monster in front of Yurine. “Letal mız truna na? Ina gas na wart? Nah.”

She understood nothing of what he was saying. It was a language that neither Yurine nor Emily knew.

“D-devil.” She realized too late what he was. It was no longer Kigaro, it was someone else inside his body. “D... D... Di...”

“Hmm?”

Kigaro's inner demon loosened his strangling fingers a little to hear Yurine, and Yurine spoke.

“Die!”

The blades of wind from around Yurine's body cut Kigaro's hands and added new wounds to the rest of his body. Yurine wanted to kick him before she landed, but she forgot that her foot was still stuck in his stomach.

So she could not land on her feet and landed on her back. Her head hit the ground again and the gash in her head was a little more damaged. As she fell, she knocked Kigaro's corpse off balance and together they began to roll down the stairs.

It reminded her of Yu rolling down the stairs of the Sigma Tower with Joy, but this was no time for nostalgia. She tried to save her foot as she fell, but it was hard to do. Meanwhile, the demon inside Kigaro continued to chuckle.

Even when they reached the straight corridors where they were supposed to stop, they kept falling. Kigaro was holding her and rolling her. Finally, they broke through a door and only then could they stop. This was a servant's room.

Most servants' rooms are spacious, but this one was narrow. There was not even room for the servant to breathe. When they entered here, Yurine sensed a presence other than themselves. The devil had felt the same thing.

He grabbed Yurine's foot with his newly formed black hands, pulled her out of his stomach and threw it in the corner as if she were an object. Then he went to the bed in the room. A warm liquid of low density flowed over his black hands. When he lifted the bed, they saw a man sheltering underneath it.

He was a little older than Yu, with gray hair and orange eyes. He was dressed as a butler. Yurine didn't know if he started shaking when he saw Kigaro or if he was always shaking. When Kigaro grabbed him by the head and lifted him up, his hair caught fire and he started screaming.

“Golden Light.”

That was the name he had given to the ability she used when she encountered the demons in the forest in İlonya. Now, with Kigaro's inner demon having turned its back on her, she thought it was the perfect time to use it. She raised her hand and directed the mana into her palm.

As a yellow light gathered in her palm, Yurine felt her hand split open, and by the time the demon noticed the light, it was too late. Yurine blasted the accumulated mana towards them and two screams mingled together.

A yellow light filled the room as Kigaro's throat scream was accompanied by the butler's scream. When the light disappeared, Kigaro was staggering and the butler's body was smoking, his skin completely burned.

Yurine formed a blade of wind and threw it at Kigaro. Since she did this before the servant hit the ground, she sliced both Kigaro's and the servant's body in half.

Then she ran away. She couldn't stay in this room any longer with the bells ringing. She had to find Yu as soon as possible.

And as she made her way down the stairs, she came across more and more corpses. The bodies of roarons, soldiers and servants littered the path.

“Tch-tch-tch-tch... Nah.”

Yurine faced more demons.